[image]
[title]In her line of work, Bonnie Dukakis is often the youngest person in the room, and she’s often surrounded by politicians and government officials. But she doesn’t find this intimidating. Instead, she finds strength in knowing that the vast community of other young Indigenous Victorians who she advocates for in those rooms are behind her.
“I know, sitting in those spaces, that I'm not there to represent myself and what I think,” Dukakis says. “It’s because of the people around me, who I've worked with, that I actually can sit in those spaces and challenge how things are done.”
When recounting the stories of the young people she’s worked with, Dukakis reveals she’ll often imagine them being in the room with her to spur her on.
It’s powerful.
Dukakis, a Gunditjmara woman, is the executive officer of the Koorie Youth Council (KYC) – a representative body dedicated to advocating for Indigenous Australians under the age of 30. This is no small feat for the team of ten staff (who are all also under 30), especially considering that more than 50 per cent of Aboriginal people are in that demographic.
Alongside her team, Dukakis works to develop strategies and positions that will influence how organisations and government departments respond to the needs of young Aboriginal people, pertaining to areas like justice, health, housing, family violence, education and more.
“Generally speaking, we represent the voices of young people broadly in all those spaces… we get a lot of access to key decision makers, and we get opportunities to meet directly with them,” she says.
“Often it’s a lot of adults talking more broadly about what they think young people want. And there might be times when what they’re saying isn't what we’re hearing.”
You’ve got to have the passion to be in these spaces, they’re not always easy spaces.
But she’s motivated to forge ahead by focusing on KYC’s ultimate vision: Indigenous youths collectively shaping their own futures, so all young people feel safe, seen and heard.
“(Our vision) sounds pretty straightforward, but a lot of the spaces we sit in that might want youth voices and young people there, are not necessarily set up in a way that would be safe,” she says.
“For me, being passionate about normalising young people in these spaces is a big part of it. I want to see more spaces accessible to young people in all different areas.”
The KYC team essentially acts as intermediaries – working to receive feedback from young people at the annual Koori Youth Summit and liaising regularly with community organisations who are on the ground providing services to young people.
“When we are talking about issues that are important to young people, it's not just our own experiences, we have mechanisms to hear from young people,” Dukakis says.
Participating in the youth summit back in 2015 was how Dukakis first came across KYC. The event is now the largest gathering for young Indigenous Australians in Victoria.
Since joining the organisation, she’s worked on several initiatives that she’s immensely proud of for having a tangible impact on young Indigenous Victorians. This includes the Marram Nganyin program, which helped to create government grants for not-for-profit organisations to offer mentorship programs for all Indigenous youth. It provides a chance for them to receive guidance on developing their strengths, rather than only focusing on their struggles.
Dukakis says the positive feedback for initiatives like this has been loud and clear.
“We’ve been hearing that it's been a way that young people felt safe in their communities to access support and just have a safe space to be in… and that was also the first time they've had an opportunity to do strength-based work.
“There are certain spaces set up for young people who might be disengaged and there are other spaces for young people who might be more high-achieving. But how do we engage young people just for being young people?”
She says that some participants have been so impacted by these programs that they’ve stepped up to help the organisations manage them, in order to help future generations grow in the same ways they have.
Seeing that real full circle impact and effect is quite powerful.
Strides are being made in the right direction, but there are still plenty of barriers impacting Indigenous youth that need systemic remedies. And it runs deep – Dukakis says there’s a need to think outside the boundaries of societal norms for the typical young Aussie. Generational disadvantages exclude young Indigenous people from many things that most people take for granted.
“A lot of the narrative that you see is making a lot of assumptions that what's normal for one person is the same for everyone,” she says.
According to Dukakis, the best way to overcome this is to bring more young people into spaces they don’t normally have access to.
“When (young people) have been given an opportunity that they wouldn’t normally have, and people are actually listening to them, that carries so much weight,” she says.
“If you've got a young person that's been failed by systems – whether that's child protection or the criminal legal system – and they’re actually understanding that their voice and their experience matters, that's a powerful thing.”
While Dukakis is clearly passionate about her work and understands the importance of having a seat at powerful tables to speak on behalf of Indigenous youth, her dream is to have more young people sitting there with her.
“(We want to) create more opportunities for young people who are impacted by these systems to have their voices heard. So it's not just myself as a professional sitting at the table, there's actually these other opportunities that are more consistently available.”